BACKGROUNDIn June 2008, the CARICOM Secretariat convened the CARICOM Statistics Meeting: Strategising for the Improvement of Economic Statistics in the Region to assess the impact of developmental work in Economic Statistics and to develop and formulate CARICOM Economic Statistics Action Plans. At the end of the meeting, it was proposed that the technical issues surrounding this Action Plan would be best addressed via the formation of a Technical Working Group (TWG) – National Accounts and Trade in Services.

OUTPUTS FOR CONSIDERATIONTo date, this TWG has met twice (November 2009 and April 2010) and discussed a range of issues. Below are some of the outputs for your consideration and approval. It is expected that these outputs will be forwarded to the Advisory Group on Statistics for approval, following sign off by all Member States.

• INTEGRATED ECONOMIC QUESTIONNAIRE – LONG FORM and EXPLANATORY NOTESIn an attempt to support the harmonisation of data collection throughout the Region, the TWG proposed and developed an Integrated Economic Questionnaire as well as an accompanying set of Explanatory Notes. This questionnaire and notes are based on international principles and guidelines, and are meant to serve as a benchmark by which Member States ensure the correctness of their surveys.

• BUSINESS REGISTER MANUAL and QUESTIONNAIREThe Group also proposed that further work be done to improve the state of Business Registers across the Region. To this end, it was recommended that a Business Register Manual and Regional Questionnaire be developed. As a platform, the TWG recommended that the Business Register Questionnaire of Trinidad and Tobago be used as a template for the development of the Regional questionnaire.

Your comments and suggestions on these TWG outputs are therefore critical towards finalising the attached documents, before submission to the Advisory Group on Statistics for consideration and approval.Grateful for your efforts as usual.

Thank You,Kevin Sears – Project Assistant

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